teens

Most teens and parents are probably a bit burned out from the transition to online learning. And while it’s great that kids continue to make progress in schooling, spending so much time in front of their computer screens working on worksheets on their own can definitely get a bit boring. We’ve been hearing from parents about their need for creative learning activities for teens, and how incorporating learning into activities like cooking, nature exploration, and even photography or videography, have made a significant positive impact on their teens’ demeanor and outlook on this “at home learning” thing we’re all trying to figure out.

Does your teen come home complaining about yet another school group project? Most likely they’re worried that they’ll end up doing all the work, or it’s going to be chaos, or they’ll end up with a bad grade because someone didn’t contribute.

School group projects are meant to teach our kids how to work together with many other personalities and skill levels. This is a very useful skill to have for high school and college, and it prepares them for “the real world”. But year after year, school group projects end up being a huge cause of stress and worry for some kids.

Teen SMART Goals is all about empowering teens through a proven process. Through SMART Goals, teens become experts at setting, breaking down, and achieving goals. Our App aims to develop grit, a growth mindset, and avoid burnout. Teens will learn to get organized, track their own progress, find what’s missing, and quickly make appropriate corrections. By connecting goals to an inspirational image, rewards, and perspective into progress towards long-term goals, you help your teen stay motivated.

Always running late? Homework doesn’t get done? Chores are regularly forgotten? Teen procrastination can create so much stress and anxiety for parents, as well as the kids doing it. They may think they’re good at working under pressure, but in reality they’re just piling on the stress that will lead to burnout. While some procrastination is completely normal, the teenage years are the perfect time to work on building new routines that will prepare them for the increasing challenges of high school, college and beyond.

Back to School can be a good thing and a bad thing… The beginning of the school year can be exciting: starting in a new school, challenging new classes, seeing school friends more often. But it can also be chaotic, disorganized, and challenging. Shifting from summer to a rigorous school schedule can be a painful transition, for parents as well as teens. Early wake-ups, homework, school projects, after-school clubs and activities can fill up a day pretty quickly. This year our oldest is starting high school, which means we also have a totally new routine to get used to. So, it’s totally understandable that a few things will fall through the cracks as students and parents adjust to the new demands.

We talk a lot about SMART goals for teens on this website and on our Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages because we are big believers in everyone’s ability to improve their chances of success. But, I also realize that learning how to define each goal as a SMART goal is not so easy if you haven’t had any practice doing that. The very first time I sat down with my own kids to turn their goals into SMART Goals, it took quite a few tries and discussions back and forth to walk them through the process that would give them a “stretch goal” that was also defined in enough detail that they could now work off of their activities list or action plan. I even looked for examples of SMART goals for teens, and honestly I didn’t really find much to go on.

This summer is flying by! At least that’s what it feels like at our house. It seems like the end of school only gave way to tired teens and tired parents. We tried to give our kids time to recover, sleeping in, extra time with their friends, knowing that the first month they would still be pretty busy with tennis camps, dance competitions, chores, and family activities. And now we’re halfway through the summer, and it seems that we’ve fallen into some bad habits of too much time in front of electronics, and maybe not enough motivation to get away from them.

Teens are told all the time to find a passion, find their sense of purpose. But that’s not so easy to do without some serious self-reflection. Is your teen having trouble figuring out what makes them truly happy? A vision board for teens could be the key to unleashing their dreams!

A vision board that shows them their dreams NOW, like going to a specific university, playing varsity sports, getting the lead in a school play, or publishing a website or podcast, can be a very powerful tool for self-motivation.

Success Stories…

Loved that your app provides an opportunity for teens to grow and gain independence, but on the flipside provides a window for parents to initiate meaningful conversations! Perfect balance during these teen years!

Teen SMART Goals App is now available on the App Store Our Teen SMART Goals App guides teens through the process of breaking tasks down into manageable and doable activities so they can accomplish everything they set their mind to,

FREE EBOOK: 5 SIMPLE SKILLS TO MAXIMIZE TEEN PRODUCTIVITY

Claim your own copy of our eBook “5 Simple Skills to Maximize Teen Productivity”. You can share these valuable ideas with your teen, and help guide them through simple steps to become a master planner!

This book will help you guide your teen to develop new habits that will make it easy to:

Plan ahead

Prioritize efficiently

Master “single-tasking”

Take breaks to improve efficiency

Practice self-reflection

Download this guide NOW to prepare your teens to set SMART goals and get more done!